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A SKETCH OF 

THE COMPARATIVE BEAUTIES 



FRENCH AND SPANISH 

LANGUAGES, 



MANUEL MARTINEZ DE MORENTIN, 

PROFESSOR OF THE SPANISH LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE; 
AUTHOR OF "ESTUDIOS F1LOLOGICOS, DIFICULTADES PRINCIPALES DE LA LENGUA ESPANOLA. 










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PRECEDED BY INTRODUCTORY REMARKS, BY 

ALFRED ELWES, Esq. 



The Spanish Language is nothing inferior to the most celebrated of those now in use, 
called the living languages ; but rather equals them in all points ; and, in many 
particulars, exceeds and surpasses them. 

1 It is sweet and harmonious; and yet, has at the same time, such a manly and majestic 
grace, that it at once becomes the mouth of the soldier, the courtier, the preacher, the 
statesman, and the nicest lady; and it is withal so copious that there is nothing 
wanting in it to express whatsoever can be found in all others put together." 

(Preface to J. Stevens' Spanish and English Dictionary, London Edition, mdccvi.) 






TRUBNER & 



LONDON : 
CO., PATERNOSTER ROW. 

1859. 






T. RICHARDS, 37, GREAT QUEEN STREET. 



INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. 



Three motives induce me to append a few words, 
by way of preface or introduction, to this agreeable 
"Sketch of the Comparative Beauties of the French 
and Spanish Languages." 

First. The interest I take in all studies bearing 
upon subjects analogous to the present. Second. My 
desire to awaken a similar interest in others ; and Third, 
The high esteem in which I hold the author. 

Few studies are calculated to cause more intellectual 
delight than the examination of the analogies, the 
harmonies, and the diversities of languages. As, step 
by step, the student pursues his researches, new lights 
burst upon him ; fresh ideas spring up in his mind : 
just as an attentive wayfarer in a new country dis- 
covers, as he climbs the mountain side, new prospects 
opened to his view, and more distant eminences yet 
to be attained. 



IV INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. 

If this be the pleasure afforded by philological re- 
searches, — and, that it is so, all who have ventured on 
the trial will readily concede, — how ill-advised must 
be the endeavours of a small section of students in the 
present day, to fuse all idioms into one heavy mass, 
and pompously style it a universal language. 

Efforts of this kind must fail, and deservedly so. 
They must fail because, in order that they should 
succeed, we must be persuaded to sweep away not 
only some of our sweetest and dearest associations, 
such as those attaching to the words of childhood and 
youth, but all the glories of literature, the diversities 
of style, the power and pathos, the wit and humour 
which every tongue, as at present constituted, can 
convey to the understanding. The great charm of 
language is its diversity. We admire one idiom for 
its softness, another for its strength ; we praise one 
tongue for its manly grace, another for its copiousness ; 
we show a preference for one language on account of 
its simplicity ; for another because of its elegance ; 
but all these motives of choice and admiration would 
be destroyed, could the world, dreadful thought ! be 
induced to adopt a universal idiom. 

Endeavours like these seem to have arisen in the 
minds of certain men through the annoyance they 
have felt at being compelled to master the intricacies 



INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. V 

of other languages besides their own. It is a pity that 
such assiduous pains should have been so unworthily 
bestowed. The time and attention expended upon 
such an object would have sufficed to overcome the 
very difficulties which induced them first to begin the 
attempt ; and they would have had the advantage in 
the latter case of discovering, at the close of the 
struggle, that they had been laying up intellectual 
food in the garners of the mind for after years of 
delight and satisfaction. 

It was Charles V who quaintly observed that a man 
was so many times more a man as he knew 
different languages. Without admitting so broad an 
assertion, it will be easy to prove how much interest 
and advantage a man may derive from philological 
subjects. When once the first asperities, which attach 
to the elementary portions of all languages, are 
smoothed down, and the student begins to understand 
the etymology of a tongue, he makes at every step 
some fresh discovery, and finds that what he last 
acquired aids him to push still farther onwards. And 
when, at length, he is sufficiently advanced to read 
and comprehend the writers of the foreign idiom, it 
appears as though another world, hitherto scarce 
dreamed of, and teeming with life and beauty, grace 
and majesty, were unrolled before his gaze. Things 



VI INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. 

which he knew before are there presented to him under 
another guise, from a different point of sight. Many 
which he never knew are then made familiar to his 
mind ; and he can contemplate how climate and 
national feelings, how habits and institutions exert their 
influence upon mankind. This knowledge leads him 
to draw comparisons, not always favourable to his own 
land, and helps to clear away that prejudice which 
floats as a thick mist between his eyes and under- 
standing. It helps to ripen his judgment by showing 
him that among every people there is something to be 
admired and learned, and that it is only the ignorant 
and shallow-minded who scoff at what they do not 
comprehend. 

It may perchance be thought by persons who have 
not devoted particular attention to the study of lan- 
guages as a means to the enlargement of the mind, 
that I lay too much stress upon the subject, and attri- 
bute to it an importance to which it cannot pretend. 
But I appeal from their judgment to that of others who 
have, in the humble and inquiring spirit of true 
students, sought out that source of learning, and bid 
them say whether I have exaggerated its value. 

Having said thus much upon the study of languages 
in general, I turn to the particular sketch so ably 
treated by my friend. A phase only of the great 



INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. vii 

subject which I have so highly lauded, it will serve, 
perhaps better than a more pretentious production, to 
prove the force of my argument. A soldier, and a 
scholar, Martinez de Morentin approaches his sub- 
ject with something of a military spirit, and charges at 
the errors he desires to overcome, with the same 
energy as he would mount a breach or sweep down 
upon a battalion. That energy, while it does not warp 
his judgment, lends a particular zest to his composition, 
and I shall be much surprised if it does not awaken 
sympathy and respect for the author, even where it 
may fail to carry entire conviction. 

Whatever the causes which may have led to the 
general study of the French language, the fact of its 
universality in Europe is undoubted. It is known and 
spoken at every European Court, and the traveller 
upon the Continent finds it an indispensable medium 
of communication. 

It may be that the very want of copiousness which 
distinguishes the French tongue, and which compels all 
men versed in it to express the same ideas in pretty 
nearly the same words, has made it in the first instance 
the idiom jpar excellence of diplomats and ambassadors, 
and has thus paved the way for its general introduction. 
Few, who are acquainted with both tongues, will 
attempt to deny the superiority of the Spanish in 



VI 11 INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. 

almost every particular ; but it is not always the 
richest and most harmonious idiom which is best 
adapted for the common purposes of every-day life. 

With these remarks, I leave Martinez de Morentin's 
Sketch to the attention of his readers. I delight that 
it thus affords me the opportunity of coupling my 
name with his own ; and if, as I have reason to believe, 
his Essay should meet with praise, no one more heartily 
than I will rejoice at such a consummation. 

ALFEED ELWES. 



London, May 1859. 



A SKETCH, 

ETC. 



The question of the relative grace and power of the 
Spanish and French tongues, has, on various occasions, 
given subject for discussion to the learned of the two 
countries. It has been frequently debated among lin- 
guists generally. It has excited considerable interest 
both at home and abroad ; and will probably again and 
again arise while philology holds its rank in the walks 
of polite literature. 

So far back as the year 1783, the Academy of Berlin 
oifered a prize for the best essay bearing upon the sub- 
ject. The theme ran as follows : 

"Qu'est-ce qui a rendu la langue francaise univer- 
sale ? 
" Pourquoi merite-t-elle cette prerogative % 
" Est-il a presumer qu elle la conserve V 

Out of the very many compositions presented to the 
Academy, that illustrious body awarded the prize to 
the one written by A. C. Eivaeol; and, on the 31st 
January,! 786, the editor of the Literary Year (& weekly 
paper then published at Paris), on an investigation of 

B 



10 SKETCH OF THE COMPARATIVE BEAUTIES 

the merits of the essay, passed the following opinion : 
"The author has managed his subject in the most 
brilliant and advantageous manner for his own views. 
He has revealed himself throughout as a true French- 
man; for, while speaking on behalf of his country, he 
takes little heed of wounding the self-love of other 
peoples. He draws but superficially the characteristics 
of the most distinguished nations of Europe, and endea- 
vours to unravel the political and literary causes which 
have prevented their respective languages from attain- 
ing the honour of ' universality' awarded to the French. 
He may, perhaps, be accused of diminishing the glory 
with which certain idioms were crowned, even in France, 
before the French tongue had been so sensibly im- 
proved. We do not think he would have injured his 
cause by confessing that the Spanish and Italian, at 
one period, formed a prominent part of French educa- 
tion ; and that, down to the time of Corneille, the whole 
of French literature was Spanish." 

One of the most prominent, if not the strongest, of 
the literary reasons advanced by Eivarol for proving 
that the Spanish language could not acquire the univer- 
sality of the French, was, " that the writings of Cer- 
vantes and Lope de Vega were not sufficient to satisfy 
French taste and European exigencies"; and he added, 
"that Cervantes lost nothing in translation, whilst Vega, 
being greatly his inferior, was soon imitated and sur- 
passed." 

This assertion does not merit the honour of serious 
refutation. We prefer leaving it to the impartial lin- 
guist to decide whether Don Quixote could, in any 



OF THE FRENCH AND SPANISH LANGUAGES. 1 1 

French version, display the endless beauties and witti- 
cisms, the numberless humorous sallies, with which the 
original is replete; whether the chivalric language of 
the hero, and the broad drollery, yet sound sense, of 
Panza could be reproduced, without a loss of strength, 
in a language so dissimilar; particularly when such 
renderings as the following are of no uncommon occur- 
rence, " il prit la route de St. Jacques", for " tomo las 
de Villadiego" — an unpardonable blunder, which con- 
verts the original into a pointless and meaningless 
phrase. 

Eivarol further advanced, "que la magnificence de 
la langue espagnole cachait une pauvrete reelle." It is 
easier to make such an assertion than to support it. 
When drawing his comparison between the Spanish 
and the French, he should have borne in mind that he 
ought not to have inferred a paucity of words con- 
nected with the " arts and sciences", from a deficiency 
of terms relating to, and bearing upon, such arts as 
clock-making, mineralogy, wig-making, dyeing, and the 
like; 3 inasmuch as those terms merely conveyed and 
explained the meaning of operations which were scarcely, 
if at all, known at that time in Spain. 

But if it be even admitted that the Spanish tongue 

1 It will be easy for the reflective reader to infer how consider- 
able must have been the increase of words of this kind in the 
Spanish dictionaries between 1784 (the year in which Rivarol's 
essay was published) and the present ; although we are in duty 
bound to confess that Spain has not kept pace, as regards the arts, 
sciences, and invention, with the other nations of Europe. Still, 
modern additions to the technical vocabulary have nothing to do 
with the period referred to by Rivarol. 

B 2 



1:2 SKETCH OF THE COMPARATIVE BEAUTIES 

is not so copious as the French in terms relating to, or 
in connexion with, astronomy, hydraulics, chemistry, 
etc., such deficiency cannot be called "real poverty" 
(pauvrete reelle), for, in point of fact, the vocabulary of 
science and philosophy belongs to no particular nation. 
It is Greek or Latin, or is formed by analogy from the 
living languages ; or the words are derived from Greek 
or Latin roots, and furnished with such terminations as 
are considered to be most in harmony with the idiom 
that adopts them. 

If the French language bases its claims to the univer- 
sality it possesses, upon its having, to a certain extent, 
become the vulgar idiom of science and art, what 
powerful rival claims could not be advanced, upon that 
score, by the English, whose technical dictionary knows 
no bounds % But even granting, for the sake of argu- 
ment, that such is the case, we will proceed to examine 
the question calmly and dispassionately, and doubt not 
our being able to produce ample proofs of the hollow- 
ness of such claims when compared with the Spanish, 
particularly as regards copiousness in the usual lan- 
guage and idiomatic forms of daily life. 

And at starting we do not hesitate to say that the 
French language is very defective in the generality of 
simple collective nouns denoting in one word the soil 
and its productions, and the various kinds of trees. 
The following will exemplify our meaning : madronal, 
pinar, acebuchal, olivar, naranjcd, triguercd, cebadal, 
maizcd, zandial, etc.; to express which a Frenchman 
will find himself compelled to employ such circumlocu- 
tions as, " bois d arbousiers", " bois de pins", " bois d'oli- 



OF THE FRENCH AND SPANISH LANGUAGES. 13 

viers sauvages", " lieu plante d'oliviers", " lieu plante 
d'orangers", "champ seme de ble", "champ seme d'orge", 
"champ plante de melons d'eau", etc. 

And again, what words are there in French which 
denote, and are individually equivalent to, certain 
Spanish words, such as the fruits of trees, or the pro- 
duce of the soil % La naranja, for instance, becomes 
converted into "pomme d'orange"; la pifia, "pomme 
de pin"; el tomate reappears as " pomme d'amour"; and 
la patata, " pomme de terre". 

What simple French words are equivalent to the 
Spanish, pedregal, cantizal, guijarral, etc. \ 

On the one hand, if the Spanish does not possess the 
French terms, matinee, soiree, nuitee ; the French does 
not, on the other, possess the equivalents of madrugada, 
mesada, semanada, veranada, otonada, invernada, and 
many similar ones. 

If, on turning from the vegetable kingdom, we refer 
to animated nature, what a void do we not discover in 
French with respect to collective nouns \ The simple 
generic French noun, troupeau, becomes in Spanish, 
rebano or hato, when applied to " betes-a-laine" only, 
and piara when referring to swine. But where will 
the student find French equivalents for the Spanish 
vacada, boyada, torada, carnerada, borricada, cabal- 
lada, yeguada, midetada, and the like \ In order to 
render such terms he will find himself obliged to resort 
to a whole phrase, with the unending troupeau at its 
head, and say, "troupeau de vaches", "troupeau de 
bceufs", " troupeau de taureaux", and so on. 

Still we will not deny to the French, with regard to 



14 LETCH OF THE COMPARATIVE BEAUT1 

the general nomenclature of words, both accuracy and 
precision where, in other tongues, we meet but tram- 
mels and grammatical slavery. But this much granted, 
we unhesitatingly declare that it possesses nothing of 
that epic character, nothing of that musical cadence and 
free construction, for which the Spanish is notoriously 
remarkable. 

The preeminence which one language possesses over 
another is traceable to two main causes, harmony and 
copiousness. With respect to the former quality, the 
regular and well-ordered distribution of accents in the 
Castilian tongue, arising from the abundance of long, 
short, and acute words with which it is supplied, and 
the advantage derivable from its unembarrassed con- 
struction, — the writer being always at liberty to arrange 
his words as they may sound most harmonious, even 
to the disregard of strict syntactical formula, — are pro- 
ductive of that musical effect which satisfies the sense 
and delights the ear. As regards the latter quality, 
the copiousness of the Spanish idiom is such that it can 
express with equal propriety the sublime and awful 
truths of religion, and the softest and tenderest effu- 
sions of pastoral poetry ; while its fitness for translation 
is proved by the several versions of foreign works 
which preserve in Spanish their characteristic en- 2 
and beauty of style. We may instance in particular 
the fine translations from the Latin : among others the 
works of Tacitus, and those of Sallust, by his Serene 
Highness Don Gabeiel, Infante of Spain. If we ap- 
pend to these facts the favourable circumstance that 
the Spanish tongue, like the Italian, abounds in aug- 



OF THE FRENCH AND SPANISH LANGUAGES. 15 

nientatives and diminutives ; that it is fertile in com- 
pound, frequentative, and imitative verbs; that it is 
plentifully supplied with proverbs 1 and quaint sayings, 
— we -may confidently lean to the belief that Eivarol 
never committed a grosser blunder than when he spoke 
of the " pauvrete reelle de la langue espagnole". 

The mute sounds of the vowels in the French tongue, 
together with its harsh monosyllables and iron-bound 
construction, are, as may readily be believed, a consi- 
derable drawback to that fashionable idiom ; and if we 
add, that it does not admit the happy inversions of the 
Spanish, Italian, and English languages, we behold it 
deprived of that melodious beauty which those tongues 
have inherited from the mother stock, especially from 
the Latin. 

In support of this, we will merely refer to Lucius 
Maeineus Siculus (although other authors might be 
quoted), who, in ch. 5, " De lingua qua nunc utantur 
Hispani", asserts that the Spanish retains more of the 
Latin than any other language, and that it exceeds in 
beauty and elegance all others ; adding that, of all the 
other languages, now corrupted, but derived from the 
Latin, the Spanish is the nearest to the Eoman way of 

1 The collection made by Don Juan de Yriarte alone con- 
tains more than twenty-four thousand. As a further proof of the 
richness of this manly language, we beg the reader to peruse, if 
conversant with Spanish, the interesting letters of "Blasco de 
Garay", all written in proverbs, — a work difficult and original of 
its kind, — and five novels by the same author, in each of which 
there occurs the omission of a vowel : the first, for instance, con- 
taining no a, the second no e, and so on, — a curiosity that could 
not be so easily produced in other tongues. (See Discours sur la 
maniere d'apprendre les langues, etc., par Anaya.) 



16 SKETCH OF THE COMPARATIVE BEAUTIES 

speaking, and that it is more elegant and sweeter than 
all the rest, the Greek and Latin only excepted. In 
speech it is grave, sonorous, and of exquisite melody, 
containing much of the slow and stately manner- of the 
Orientals, who seem sensible that the power of speech 
is a privilege bestowed on man. 

As regard euphony and oratorical structure, of which 
mention has been made, the reader shall judge for him- 
self, on a bare comparison of the following words in the 
two languages: 

SPANISH, FRENCH. 

Abuelos. Pulso. Huevo. Aieux. Pouls. Oeuf. 

Aguas. Aires. Olas. Eaux. Airs. Flots. 

Lagos, Desnudo. Riesgos. Lacs. Nud. Rises. 

Cortes. Mudo. Cuidados. Courts. Muet. Soins. 

Peso, Medio, Poids, Milieu. 

How striking a difference is there in the intonation 
of these words ! The former are soft, full, and sono- 
rous • the latter cannot fail to offend the most unmu- 
sical ear, — even that of a German, who, whilst proclaim- 
ing the sounds in Maldonado and Kodriguez harsh 
and unpleasant, declares euphonious and tender those 
in Muschenbrock and Schwarzfleisch. 

But the Spanish tongue has other claims to distinc- 
tion than sweetness and harmony. If we were inclined, 
and our space allowed us, to dwell upon its power for 
irony and original wit, we could fill many a page with 
the remarkable sayings to which it has given birth, 
even from the lips of most illiterate clowns. We can- 
not, as it is, refrain from quoting two or three as fair 
specimens of the sal Atticum. 



OF THE FRENCH AND SPANISH LANGUAGES. 1 7 

A muleteer observing that a barber, when in the act 
of commencing the operation of shaving a customer, 
had a very tremulous motion of the hand, exclaimed, 
" i Vaya, amigo : que lindas manos tiene usted para 
robar sonajas !" (Taith, friend, what hands you have 
for stealing timbrels !) The idea and words alike speak 
for themselves, and require no comment. 

Machuca, an old muleteer, being compelled, from 
pressure of business, to leave Seville for Madrid, was 
asked why he did not wait a day longer, when he 
replied: "Eeniego de mi oficio; vea usted que dia 
maiiana de arrear bestias, que por permision de Dios, 
ni las moscas habian de volar." (Curse on my trade ! 
just see what a day tomorrow is to drive cattle, when, 
with God's permission, not even the flies should flap 
a wing !) What orator or poet could farther heighten 
the sanctity of the Lord's day \ 

A poor labourer, Madronal by name, complained 
that, in his native place (Utrera), some partiality had 
been shewn in the allotment of land, whereby he was 
deprived of a portion which, in his opinion, was much 
more productive in grain than the one that had fallen 
to his lot. On his being asked if the other really did 

produce more, he answered: "\ Como mas grano % 

Si Dios se sienta alii, a echar trigo." (More grain, 
indeed ! Why, God sits there pouring it out !) Was ever 
greater pregnancy of thought confined in fewer words % 

To return, however, from this digression. Eivarol, 
in advancing the dictum, " On s'apercut done, que la 
magnificence de la langue espagnole, et Torgueil national 
cachaient une pauvrete reelle", overlooked the fact that 



IS SKETCH OF THE COMPARATIVE BEAUTIES 

the copiousness of the usual and general dictionary of 
the Spanish language springs from an inherent source 
of wealth. All is its own : nothing is borrowed from 
another, nor can it be imparted. 

We will here set down, by way of elucidation, some 
random instances of this truth. When the most elo- 
quent French orator wishes to designate various kinds 
of commanders, all his fluency of language cannot supply 
him with other than the vague and generic term," chef ", 
while the most unlettered Spanish clown can employ 
caudillo,capitan,cabeza,cabo, caporal, and gefe, accord- 
ing to circumstances, degrees of authority, and the like. 
And these same words not only convey such a sense of 
superiority, degree of authority, etc., but each has a 
separate and characteristic application, as for instance, 
cabeza de motin 9 cabo de una ronda,cauditto del Pueblo 
de Dios, gefe de un departamento, oficina, etc.; it being 
in no case permissible to say gefe de motin, gefe de una 
ronda, gefe del Pueblo de Dios. 

When the most profound and exact French philo- 
sopher struggles hard with the generic word " maitre", 
in his desire to express different shades of superiority, 
yet finds no other, the most illiterate Spaniard can 
either make use of the precise term, or supply its place 
with one of the following correlatives, soberano, dueno, 
amo, seizor, maestro, maestre, etc. 

And this same French language which boasts so com- 
placently of its universality, calls the " executioner" by 
the high-sounding compound title, maitre des hautes 
ceuvres ("maestro de obras altas"), master of high 
works, if it be desired to escape the inharmonious term, 
bourreau. 



OF THE FRENCH AND SPANISH LANGUAGES. 19 

The foregoing examples and remarks will sufficiently 
prove to the student that, although the French tongue 
has no lack of words adapted to science and the arts, it 
is indeed most meagrely supplied with those most in 
common use. 

Another instance of this will be found in the word 
" bois", in Spanish madera. If we Castilians were con- 
fined to that word only, as the French are, to convey 
both the meaning of " bois", deforest, a ivood (in Spanish 
"monte", "bosque"), and " bois-a-bruler", ftreivood (in 
Spanish "lefio", "lena", "madera", "palo"), then that 
scarcity, that "pauvrete reelle", spoken of by Kivarol, 
would be acutely felt. 

And again, if we were compelled to say bestias de 
cuerno for " betes-a-cornes", in lieu of ganado vacuno, 
a more noble combination ; or instead of the still more 
polished expressions, ganado de cuerno, ganado de 
astas ; and if, in the place of our word biznietas, we 
were forced to adopt the queer combination of the 
French, " arriere-petites-filles" (tras-pequenas-hijas), — 
Eivarol might then, with some better show of reason, 
have talked of " la pauvrete reelle de la langue espa- 
gnole." 

A first class English scholar 1 has remarked that the 
Spanish tongue, far from deserving to be looked upon 
as a corruption of the Latin, ought rather to be consi- 
dered as an improvement upon that language; for, in 

1 Captain John Stevens, author of an English-Spanish dic- 
tionary, a work of merit, and for which he deserves the highest 
encomium, on account of the zeal he has therein displayed to pro- 
mote the advancement of learning. 



20 SKETCH OF THE COMPARATIVE BEAUTIES 

his opinion, it excels the latter in many points, and 
particularly in the abundance of its terms, several fre- 
quently springing from a single root. In proof of this 
he instances the word tierra (earth), from which no 
fewer than six substantives are formed, viz., terrero 
(a parade), terreno (soil), terrado (a terrace), t err on (a 
clod), terremoto (an earthquake), territorio (a precinct), 
together with the adjectives terrenal, terrestre (earthly, 
terrestrial), and the verbs desterrar (to banish, exile), 
enterrar (to inter, bury), desenterrar (to disinter, ex- 
hume), aterrar (to frighten, alarm), etc. Captain 
Stevens would seem, however, to have lost sight of 
the fact that this identical Latin word, terra, has been 
abundantly fruitful of derivatives to many European 
languages besides the Spanish; and the following in- 
stances will shew that the French itself has not been 
slighted, deterrer, enterrer, terrasser, enterrage, terrain, 
terrasse, territoire, souterrain, etc. 

It would be an endless task were we to follow up 
the parallel through all the minutiae which offer subject 
for remark. We cannot, however, refrain from noticing 
that such a simple word as polvora (gunpowder) must 
be rendered into French by poudre-a-canon (" polvos 
de canon"), to avoid mistaking it for any other kind 
of powder, whether for the hair or otherwise ; and that 
the term herradura (horse-shoe) must figure in French 
as a fer-d-cheval, although applied to any other beast 
of burden than the horse, viz. the mule, ox, or ass. 

If we turn from the simple and primitive words to 
derivative and compound nouns, what a mine of wealth 
and variety is there not opened up for the contempla- 



OF THE FRENCH AND SPANISH LANGUAGES. 21 

tion of the philological and reflective mind ! Where 
could the student meet, in the French language, with 
the equivalents of the Spanish alicaido (with de- 
pressed wings), aliquebrado (broken- winged), barbite- 
nido (beard-dyed), barbilampino (thin-bearded), barbi- 
blanco (white or grey-bearded), barbiponiente (with 
the beard growing), barbilindo (well shaved and trim- 
med), barbinegro (black-bearded), pelilargo, pelirubio, 
pelicano, pelicorto, perniabierto, pemiquebrado, zan- 
quilargo, etc. 

We will not venture to wear out the patience and 
goodnature of our readers with a volume of other ex- 
amples which it would be easy to adduce ; we cannot, 
nevertheless, leave this part of our subject without 
citing another instance, which, though totally uncon- 
nected with metaphysics or abstract science, is remark- 
able in the way of derivatives. We allude to the word 
perro (dog). The Spaniards, even in their sportiveness 
with this faithful companion of man, have enriched 
their language with a variety of words, all of which owe 
their origin to the primitive perro (in French chien, 
and chien only). Thus we find the simple derivations, 
perrito, perrillo, perrico, perrazo, perruno, perrero, 
perrera, perrada, and the compound ones, aperreado, 
emperrado ; and besides these, canino, canina, caninez, 
from can; still chien in French, and chien only. 

And if we revert to the energetic compound words, 
pemiquebrado, that is, a jambes rompues (with broken 
legs) ; maniatado, — lie aux mains (with the hands 
bound), we shall seek in vain for anything like them in 
French. Find also, if you can, in the very best of 



22 SKETCH OF THE COMPARATIVE BEAUTIES 

French dictionaries, a specimen of simple words em- 
bracing, at one and the same time, an action and its 
effect or result, as illustrated in the following : escope- 
tazo, pincelada, punetazo, canonazo, garrotazo, puna- 
lad a, cuchillada, etc. Frenchmen are compelled, in 
such cases, to render their meaning with a foolish repe- 
tition of coups, and say, "coup de fusil", "coup de pin- 
ceau", "coup de poing", "coup de canon", "coup de 
baton", "coup de poignard", "coup de couteau", etc.; as 
if we should say in Spanish, golpe de fusil, golpe de 
pined, and so on. Surely there is neither strength nor 
elegance, neither beauty nor precision, in such a shower 
of French bloivs. 

Let it not be thought that we have devoted much 
time to search out these ugly features of the physio- 
gnomy of the French language. In proof, let the most 
incurious student open the first vocabulary of that 
tongue, and they will at once stare him in the face. 
Still, justice demands that we should not withhold, 
where it is in our power, the admission of any advan- 
tages possessed by the French over the Spanish tongue. 
The inferiority of the latter is visible, for instance, in 
the word^szco, which has to perform the double office 
of a substantive and an adjective; while in French 
physique and physicien are perfectly distinct, each con- 
veying to the mind its proper sense and bearing. In 
like manner, the words mathematique and mathemati- 
eien are rendered by matematico only in Spanish. To 
counterbalance this deficiency, however, the Spaniards 
possess sacrilege- and sacrilegio, homicida and homi- 
cidio, suicida and suicidio ; where the French have 



OF THE FRENCH AND SPANISH LANGUAGES. 23 

merely sacrilege, homicide, and suicide, thereby con- 
founding both the act and its perpetrator. 

For our ruego, suplica, plegaria, oracion, preces, rezo, 
and rogativa, they have their generic priere, and the 
words supplique, supplication, and oraison; but the 
particular shade of meaning attributable to each, com- 
pels the writer to be watchful as to his mode of using 
them. 

Our prisionero, encarcelado, apresado, arrestado, 
confinado, etc., find a meagre counterpart in prisonnier: 
and our nino, nina, muchacho, muchacha, hijo, hija, are 
indifferently represented by garcon, enfant, fds, fille, 
and the adjective petit, petite ; very expressive and 
endearing words, no doubt, but which lack the regu- 
larity of the Spanish with their masculine and feminine 
terminations. 

The words poder, poderio, potestad, and potencia, 
must perforce be rendered by puissance and pouvoir ; 
while fraile (a monk), — moine in French, has no fewer 
than seven derivatives, to wit, fraileria, frailada, frai- 
lesco,fvailuno, afrailado, frailer o, smdfrailia, together 
with the verbs enfrailar and desenfrailar. Be it said, 
however, in this place, that it would have been well for 
Spain if she had shewn less familiarity with the class 
of men who are thus abundantly supplied with epithets, 
for the decline of the nation is surely traceable in part 
to the multitude of these drones in the industrial hive. 

As a counterpoise to the foregoing, we may cite in 
favour of the French language, that it does not fall into 
the equivoque of having but the one word, barba (beard), 
to express both barbe and menton (chin). The Spanish 



24 SKETCH OF THE COMPARATIVE BEAUTIES 

pastor (shepherd) is also more copiously rendered by 
berger, pasteur, and pdtre ; oveja (ewe) becomes brebis 
and ouaitte ; negro (a black) can be expressed by both 
negre and noir; and hambre (hunger) by both faim and 
famine. 

The advantage is also on the side of the French 
tongue with respect to a number of words connected 
with inland navigation and the transport of timber, 
merchandize, and provisions. The fact is easily ac- 
counted for. Spain (we regret deeply the confession) 
is sadly deficient in canals and railways; and, until 
such deficiency is supplied, the terms which appertain 
to these great highways will naturally be wanting. The 
scarcity thus shewn to exist in Spanish, is in turn 
experienced by the French tongue in the case of many 
words, — some of them, it is true, of no great practical 
utility, — which serve to enrich the language, and whose 
redundancy is a strong confutation of M. de Bivakoi/s 
charge of " pauvrete reelle". Among others we may 
cite those below, for which it would be difficult to find 
equivalents in French : 



Almoxarifazgo. 


Sexmo. 


Adelantamiento. 


Yantar. 


Santa Hermandad. 


Encartacion. 


Alcabalatorio. 


Alcaldia de Corte. 


Anteiglesia. 


Cabana real. 


Ganaderia. 


Corregimiento. 


Agostadero. 


Recua. 


Pastoria. 


Trashumante. 


Luctuosa. 


Rabadan. 


MerindacL 


Alcabala. 


Arrieria, etc. 



It must ever be matter of wonder, knowing, as we 
do, the high claims advanced by France as a nation to 
polish and refinement, that she should consent to allow 



OF THE FRENCH AND SPANISH LANGUAGES. 25 

the continuance in her language of sounds imitative of 
the repulsive grunt of the hog, such as those which 
terminate in oin,so justly criticized by Voltaire; and 
still more, of the discourteous, nay, indecent word cul, 
in such combinations as the following : 

Cul de chapeau. Cul de four. 

Cul de lampe. Cul de basse fosse. 

Cul de sac. Cul d'ane. 

Cul de cheval. Cul blanc. 

A ecorche cul. Cul de jatte. 

In the verbs culbuter, reculer ; and in the nouns culotte, 
culeron, culiere, culasse: the last, with wonderfully bad 
taste, imported into Spanish, without the slightest 
necessity, under the designation of culata. 1 

If we have brought against the language of France 
such charges as the foregoing, we are not blind to the 
drawbacks and irregularities of our own. To cite one, 
for instance, the confounding the sounds of the two 
consonants v and b. 

The Spanish Academy made a laudable attempt, in 
the last edition of its orthography, to correct an ano- 
maly as striking as it is inconvenient. The endeavour 
ended, however, in failure. The proper enunciation of 
the sound of these two letters has been lost to the Cas- 
tilian for ages ; and the present confusion, which seems 
likely to be permanent, is not to be attributed, as the 
Academy feigns to believe, to the inattention and negli- 
gence of parents and teachers, but to the fact of the 
two letters having, in process of time, both become soft 
and blended into one. 

1 Puighrlanch, Opusculos Gramatico-Satiricos, v. 2, p. 492. 

C 



26 SKETCH OF THE COMPARATIVE BEAUTIES 

It is a most singular fact, that while foreigners in 
general are offended by the guttural sound of the j (the 
jota), the Castilian ear is so reconciled to it as to need 
no change ; but it has a prodigious dislike to the hard 
sound of b, which originally existed in the language, 
and has succeeded at length in banishing it altogether. 
Such is the force of habit ! Such the iron rule of usage ! 

With respect to the general fulness of sound preva- 
lent in Spanish words, Rivarol himself — perchance in 
an unguarded moment — has frankly owned that, if the 
Provencal had prevailed in the composition of the 
French tongue, it would have borne away the palm 
from both the Spanish and Italian ; but that the patois 
picard having obtained the supremacy, the language 
had embodied the method and imbibed the rigid per- 
spicuity of that peculiar jargon, and at the same time 
adopted so many of its obscure and out-of-the-way 
sounds for which the French tongue is so remarkable. 

And surely Rivarol could not have had an ear so 
unmusical as not to have been struck with the sono- 
rousness and roundness of the Spanish pronunciation 
while studying the Spanish classics; particularly if he 
chanced to meet with words similar to the follow- 
ing: heredamiento, remordimiento,contentamiento, des- 
enfrenamiento, cautividades, inhumanidades, dulce- 
dumbre, rnansedumbre, servidumbre ; or with such 
adjectives and adverbs as, hermosisimo, violentisimo, 
clementisimo, superabundantisimamente, ir ration alisi- 
mamente, desinteresadisimamente, contrarevolucionari- 
amente; or with some of the apostrophes of our divines, 
like the following of Granada (Fray Luis) : 



OF THE FRENCH AND SPANISH LANGUAGES. 27 

" i dulcisimo amador de las almas limpias ! j 
" dulcedumbre mia santa ; esperanza mia segura ; cari- 
" dad mia perfecta ; vida mia eterna ; alegria y bien- 
" aventuranza mia perdurable ! \ Dios mio ! vida mia ! 
" unica esperanza mia; muy grande misericordia mia, 
" y dulcedumbre bienaventurada mia ! j todo amable ! 
" j todo deleitable !" etc., etc. 

It is from the happy combination of soft and sono- 
rous words with those of a harsher sound, that Spanish 
phrases acquire a harmony that charms and soothes the 
ear. What beauty is there not perceptible in the phrases 
subjoined ! particularly when read aloud, and with the 
proper emphasis and intonation : 

"Ya entrambos mundos peregrinando el hombre,"etc. 

" j Invicto y potentisimo monarca !" 

" El aspero favor del mar airado," etc. 

" j Angelica y dulcisima alegria !" 

And the same Fray Luis Granada, on extolling the 
attributes and perfections of the Divinity in a "Para- 
diostele", addresses to the Most High the following 
fervent supplication: 

" j invisible, y que todo lo ves, inmutable y que 
" todo lo mudas ; a quien ni el origen did principio, ni 
" los tiempos daran fin ! Vos sols el que criasteis todas 
" las cosas sin necesidad, y las sustentais sin cansancio, 
"y las rejis sin trabajo, y las moveis sin ser movido ! 
" Vos estais dentro de todas las cosas ; y no estrechado 
" — fuera de todas, y no desechado; debajo de todas, y 
" no abatido ; encima de todas, y no altivo," etc. 

We could fill a folio volume by merely quoting pas- 
sages from various writers, to prove the beauty, energy, 

c 2 



28 SKETCH OF THE COMPARATIVE BEAUTIES 

and force of a language which has few compeers and no 
superior; but we hold our hand to make a few remarks 
upon another rash assertion of M. de Kivarol, viz., 
" that Spain, in spite of her many losses, would not have 
had so rapid a downfal, if she could have sustained by 
her literature the curiosity then springing up, and 
spreading over the continent of Europe, for new and 
interesting works in every branch of polite and philo- 
sophic research and belles lettres." 

The natural inference to be drawn from the fore- 
going, is, that Spain had no such literature as Kivarol 
asserts was needed ; but we beg emphatically to state 
that the literature of Spain was very far from being, at 
that time, so insignificant as our author would make it 
appear. We may, too, in contradiction to his opinion, 
observe that it has been frequently remarked that 
Spanish literature is a mine of wealth singularly pro- 
ductive, enriching many others, and itself remaining 
hidden and comparatively unknown. This assertion, 
though fanciful, scarcely oversteps the modesty of truth. 
Between 1500 and 1684 (one hundred and eighty-four 
years), there flourished no fewer than seven thousand 
three hundred and sixty-five writers, 1 belonging to 
every department of literature, — natural philosophy, 
perhaps, only excepted, whose progress was checked by 
the Church, by weak monarchs, and the Inquisition. 
And even granting that the literary glory of a nation 
consists rather in the quality than the number of its 
productions, still, in that long list, there are many 
names which posterity will not let die. 

1 Nicolas Antonio, Bibloteca Hispana Nova. 



OF THE FRENCH AND SPANISH LANGUAGES. 29 

The influence of that period is felt even where the 
names of particular authors may not be remembered. 
This is especially the case with the drama, which has 
served as a model 1 to other nations; and notoriously 
to the French, whose early dramatic writers, not con- 
tent with imitating the Spaniards, borrowed from them 
the subjects of many of their pieces. "We are proud 
of our literary riches," exclaims a Frenchman (Esquisse 
cVun Tableau historique de la litter ature espagnole ; 
Victor Bendu, Paris, 1840); "and with reason, too. 
But the contempt we affect for a literature to which 
we are indebted for the Cid, besides being unjust, seems 
to me unphilosophical in an age which boasts of its 
philosophy. The country, too, that has produced Cer- 
vantes, Solis, Herrera, Mariana, Isla, Feyjoo, 
Seneca, and Quintilian; and in our own day, Quin- 
tana, Cienfuegos, Jovellanos, etc., etc., is not the 
ruined country that some are fain to represent her. 
She can and may yet produce days of glory to Europe, 
of which she forms no inconsiderable part/' 

He might have added that, besides the Cid of Guil- 
len de Castro, Tristan has taken his Marianne from 
the Tetrarca de Jerusalen; and it is affirmed, with 
some show of truth, that Heraclius is borrowed from 
Calderon. All the tragedies of the younger Cor- 
neille are translations or imitations of the Spanish. 
By that author's own avowal, Le Menteur is taken from 

1 Spain undoubtedly possesses the merit of priority, which may 
be easily ascertained by comparing its Augustan age with that of 
most other nations. The reader will draw his own conclusions 
from this simple fact. 



30 SKETCH OF THE COMPARATIVE BEAUTIES 

La Verdad Sospechosa of Axarcon; and he is indebted 
to Seneca for the tragedy of Medee, and for the first 
scene of his Cinna. Lord Holland, in his Account 
of the Life and Writings of Lope de Vega, says, at 
p. 183, " The French and English writers are much in- 
debted to him for some of their most successful pro- 
ductions ; and often the outline of an excellent comedy 
is faintly delineated in an episode or a scene of Lope." 
El Desden con el Desden has furnished Moliere with 
the subject of his Princesse d' Elide} 

But it was not by the drama alone that Spain was 
so distinguished. If we cast a glance upon other 
branches of literature, and accept even the testimony 
of a French writer, 2 we shall find that the number of 
Spanish historians, chronologists, and geographers, was 
greater than that of any other nation in Europe, — the 
list of those only who have treated on subjects con- 
nected with their own people amounting to more than 
five hundred. 

If we trace further, we shall find, as regards the 
lighter departments of belles lettres, that Le Sage owes 
a large debt of gratitude to Spanish authors for the 
very many fragments he has borrowed from them in 
order to produce his Gil Bias. To cite a few, we may 
instance the story of the two students, who, on their 
way to Salamanca, found a tombstone with the inscrip- 
tion, "A qui estd enterrada el alma del Licenciado 

1 Vide Andres, v. 2, chap, xiv, pp. 312-313, Journal de Trevoux; 
the preface to the Menteur of Corneille by Voltaire, etc. 

2 C. de Veyrac, Histoire des Revolutions d'Espagne, quoted by 
D'Hermilly, p. 16. 



OF THE FRENCH AND SPANISH LANGUAGES. 31 

Pedro Garcia" taken from Vicente Espinel; 1 that of 
the young barber, Diego de la Fuente, 2 wherein the 
wife of Dr. Oloroso, and Marcos de Obregon, the old 
squire, are so quaintly alluded to; the adventure of 
Gil Bias, and of the parasite who supped with him at 
the inn of Peilaflor; 3 that of the rascally muleteer of 
Cacabelos; 4 the captivity in the Isle of La Cabrera; 5 
the exchange of rings between the Se flora Camila 6 and 
Gil Bias ; and the imitation of the mewing of the cat. 7 
The episodes which form the novelettes of Dona 
Aurora de Guzman, of the Casamiento por Venganza, 
and that of Don Alfonso, and of the Bella Serqfina, 
are taken, — the first from the drama, Todo es enredos 
Amor y diablos son las mujeres, by Agustin Moreto; 
the second from the play written by Francisco Kojas, 
entitled Casarse por vengarse; and the third from the 
novel, Mas puede Amor que la Sangre, by Don Alonso 
de Castillo Solorzano, appended to another of his 
works entitled Sola de Recreacion. And to refer to 
another celebrated production, we may remark that 
Le Diable Boiteux of Le Sage, Englished by Smollett 
under the title of The Devil on Tivo Sticks, is greatly 
indebted for its origin and treatment to El Diablo of 
Luis de Guevara; although the French author de- 
serves high praise for the very ingenious manner in 

1 Prologo de Vicente Espinel. 

3 Descanso 1 y 2 de la Relacion primera. 

3 Descanso 9, idem. 

4 Descanso 10, idem. 

5 Descanso 7 y 8 de la Relacion tercera. 

6 Decanso 8 y 9, idem. . 

7 Descanso 21 de la Relacion primera. 



32 SKETCH OF THE COMPARATIVE BEAUTIES 

which he has seized and worked out the happy concep- 
tion of his Spanish confrere. 

AVith respect to Rivaroi/s opinion, — "Mais en sup- 
posant que TEspagne eut conserve sa preponderance 
politique, il n est pas demontre que sa langue fut de- 
venue la langue usuelle de TEurope," — we regard it as 
a very groundless one. If, in the sixteenth century, 
the Spanish was the language of the Courts of Vienna, 
Bavaria, Brussels, Naples, nay, Paris itself; if Spanish 
books were printed all over the north of Europe; if, 
in the last named capital, grammars were compiled and 
written, even by the French themselves, to teach the 
Castilian idiom to their countrymen ; and if the Spanish 
tongue was spoken in the vast tracts of South America, 
— all this was surely due to the political preponderance 
of the nation at that time : for the Spaniards, like the 
Romans before them, carried and established their lan- 
guage where their supremacy was felt ; and that supre- 
macy, on account of their renowned victories obtained 
through the daring of their soldiers (the Tercios) and 
the energy of their seamen, was felt over half the habit- 
able globe. Just as, at the present day, the flag of 
England waves over every navigable creek, and dots 
every sea with her sails, the flag and ships of Spain, at 
the period to which we have alluded, had almost undis- 
puted possession of the great waters. 1 

1 We cannot refrain from giving here a rapid sketch of the 
princely possessions Spain had, at this time, under her sway : pos- 
sessions which, considering their importance, were perhaps un- 
equalled by any nation either ancient or modern. During the second 
half of the sixteenth century and the first of the seventeenth, Spain 
held all the Iberian peninsula (Portugal included) and the terri- 



OF THE FRENCH AND SPANISH LANGUAGES. 33 

Asking pardon of our readers for this digression, — 
not unconnected, however, with our subject, — we shall 
say a few words concerning the copiousness and beauty 
of the Spanish language ; and we may remark, by way 
of summary, that he who wrote "that the Spanish 
tongue was as pure as gold and as sonorous as silver", 
was a Frenchman; and, as we have every reason to 
believe, could not be taxed with over-partiality for 
Spain. 1 And Monsieur D'Alembert, 2 when analyzing 
the harmony of languages in his Essays on Literature, 
observes : " A language which abounds in soft vowels, 
like the Italian, may be the softest of all idioms, but 
not the most harmonious; for harmony, to be pleasing, 

tories of both kingdoms ; Naples, Sicily, Sardinia, Malta, Roussil- 
lon ; the Beam, with the lowlands of Navarre ; Parma, Placentia, 
the Milanese, and the whole of the Netherlands. In Africa, 
besides the Canary Islands, the Azores, Cape Verde, and Madeira, 
with the actual penal establishments, all the present Portuguese 
possessions of Angola, Congo, and Mozambique. Spain likewise 
possessed Oran, Mazal quiver, Mostagan, Tangier, Tunis, the Go- 
leta, and Gibraltar. In Asia, the coasts and factories of Malabar, 
Coromandel ; the coasts of China, with Goa and Macao ; and the 
holy places in Palestine, with their accessories. In Oceania, besides 
the Philippine Islands, Bisayas, the Carolinas, Marianas, and Palos, 
a great part of Sonda, Timor, the Moluccas, and a multitude of 
archipelagoes and groups, with detached islands, in the Pacific. 
And in America, Spain ruled almost the whole of that vast conti- 
nent with a population of ten millions of souls. And all this 
gigantic power has slid from her grasp within the space of two 
centuries- (Mellado, Guia del Viajero en Espana. 4th edition. 
Madrid.) 

1 L'Abbe Raynal, a philosopher of the nineteenth century ; 
editor of the French Mercury, and author of the philosophical his- 
tory of the Establishment and Commerce of Europeans in the East 
and West Indies. 

2 Of the French Academy. 



34 SKETCH OF THE COMPARATIVE BEAUTIES 

requires to be varied also. A language, therefore, pos- 
sessing, like the Spanish, a happy mixture of con- 
sonants and vowels soft and sonorous, may perhaps 
be considered the most harmonious of all modern 
tongues." 

While admitting the correctness of D'Alembert's 
theory, and thanking him for the flattering preference 
thus given to the Castilian, we must, in justice to the 
Italian language, submit that harmony is one of its 
chief characteristics. The early Italian writers, Dante, 
Boccaccio, and others, having discovered that the re- 
dundancy of vowels proved injurious to the vigour and 
harmony of their vernacular tongue, adopted a remedy 
as simple as it was effective. They dropped the final 
vowel of a host of words, and thus obtained, with a 
consonant termination, a force and an energy, with 
harmony combined, which no language can surpass. 
This example has been extensively followed by modern 
authors ; and it would be easy to select a number of 
passages from the great masters we have mentioned, 
and the recent writers to whom we have alluded, in 
proof of the quasi-perfection of the Italian tongue. 

Capmany, too, in his Teatro Historico-Critico of 
Spanish eloquence, has the following remark : " Much 
we could say, were this the proper place, about the rich 
and mellifluous structure of the Italian language, and 
as much about the soft inflexions and highly pleasing 
termination of Italian words, thereby rendering it so 
musically harmonious." 

With all respect to such an authority, we yet assert 
that, although it may possess some advantages over the 



OF THE FRENCH AND SPANISH LANGUAGES. 35 

Spanish on the score of softness, accent, and poetic 
licence, still, as regards gravity, luxuriance of diction 
(gala en el decir), and musical cadence (numero), it 
must surely yield the palm to the Spanish. 

And finally, were we to abide by the opinion of a 
competent judge and an illustrious personage, 1 we 
should be led to believe, with respect to the peculiar 
characteristics of some of the European tongues, that 
French was, par excellence, the language of amity and 
polite conversation; Italian was fitted to be spoken to 
woman; that German was adapted for horses and the 
stable; English for the whistling and singing denizens 
of air; but that Spanish was the language with which 
to address the Deity. 

Monsieur De Eivarol, however, draws from the 
gravity and solemn, majestic enunciation of the Spanish 
tongue, a most erroneous conclusion ; for, if it is formal 
and grave when proclaiming the awful truths of reli- 
gion, that formality and that gravity can and do, what- 
ever he may have asserted to the contrary, admit of 
vast modification by means of syncopes, when brought 
down to the level of ordinary purpose and familiar 
intercourse. A proof of this is to be found in the enun- 
ciation of the letter d in such words as matado, atro- 
pellado, pisoteado ; or in the substantives ending with 
that letter, as caridad, libertad, magnanimidad, 2 where 

1 The Emperor Charles V. 

2 This remark refers merely to the language of every- day life ; 
for in public speaking, in the rostrum and the pulpit, in the forum 
and the theatre, — indeed, in the so-called sublime style (" estilo 
sostenido"), — every letter is sounded clearly and distinctty, as the 
seriousness of the occasion requires. 



3G SKETCH OF THE COMPARATIVE BEAUTIES 

the final letter is so subdued as to remove every notion 
of pedantry from the most fastidious ear. 

We are of opinion that Eivaeol advanced a more 
forcible and solid truth when he declared that, " Spain 
was not likely to establish the universality of her 
language while the country was labouring under the 
thraldom of an ignorant and overbearing priesthood", 
than when he ascribed the cause of its non-universality 
to scarcity or barrenness. We flatter ourselves that 
we have, even within the narrow limits to which we 
were confined, adduced more than one satisfactory 
proof of its copiousness, manliness, and elegance ; and 
that we might, had this sketch assumed more impor- 
tant dimensions, have expatiated with considerable 
force upon the inexhaustible mine of its augmentatives 
and diminutives in their simple and double form, on 
the nature of affective words and modificative adjec- 
tives, and on many other peculiarities for which the 
Spanish tongue recommends itself to the notice of 
philologists. 

Eivaeol, after having thus lighted on the very 
key-stone for the solution of his proposition, in the 
thraldom exercised by an ignorant and overbearing 
priesthood, was wrong to let it slip thus easily from his 
grasp, to put forward in its stead the false and paltry 
shadow of barrenness ; for, by this single error, he 
undermined the whole body of his structure. From 
his experience of the world, he could not be ignorant 
of that great truth of ancient and modern times, to 
wit : " That nothing more affects the moral character 
of a people, or more impairs their energy and happy 



OF THE FRENCH AND SPANISH LANGUAGES. 37 

disposition, than fanaticism and intolerance" ; nor could 
he be blind to those salutary lessons of history ; viz., 
" That when nations lose their self-respect, they must 
not look to obtain respect from others" ; and " That 
when nations disappear from the political arena, their 
influence and power, their very traditions of glory, 
vanish, and amid the wreck, their very language will 
decay". Man, under such influences, sinks lower and 
lower in the social scale, and becomes a sensualist and 
a coward-. His ruler knows it,' and with the iron rod 
fiercely shaken above his head, exclaims : " Letat c'est 
moi"; and the sybarite crouches at his master s feet, 
and exults in his own degradation with the same 
fervour as urges the free-man to struggle nobly for 
true liberty against his country's foes, or die bravely in 
the endeavour. 



T. RICHARDS, 37, GREAT QUEES STREET. 






5i: 



A SKETCH OF 



THE COMPARATIVE BEAUTIES 



MCH AND SPANISH 

! LANG IA.6E3, 



: ■ 



MANUEL M AUXIN EZ 1)E MORENTIN, 

professor of the bpamsh language and literature; 
- "esti i 103 f.lol.ogicos, i [ficcltades pill 5cipales pe t ,a. lengua espanol.v.' 




gt ^agcr drt«lntcb m % grittslj picorg ioririii. 

PRECEDED BY INTRODUCTORY REMARKS, BY 

ALFRED ELWES, Esq. 



LONDON : 
TRUBNER & CO., PATERNOSTER ROW. 

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